Following intelligence received, a special Police team arrested Black Tiger cadre Kandiah Gauri alias Kuvalini following a raid on a house at Ukkulankulam in Vavuniya on September 22, 2009. The woman suspect bit two cyanide capsules which she had already inside her mouth as she stepped into the vehicle to take her to the Police headquarters. She was rushed to hospital but she died there.

Kandayya Gauri (29) was a member of LTTE's suicide wing, or so say military officials. Born in Chavakachcheri, she lived most of her youth in Mullaitivu. In May 2008, she trekked a jungle route to reach Vavuniya, then the northern most garrison town under the control of the government. Her target, say military officials, was a VIP who would visit the town during the election campaign for the local government elections in Vavuniya.

Soon after, a Police team from Vavuniya Investigation Unit joined the e special Police team to conduct a second raid on the house where the suicide bomber was living. This raid yielded more incriminating finds and information. They found evidence to confirm that the house was the residence of Tiger Pistol gang leader Nerappu. Incidentally, Police had unearthed a micro pistol and a magazine buried on a land opposite this house in August last year.

Pursuing the hot lead, the combined Police team arrested another woman suspect who had been living in the same house with the suicide bomber. She too tried to bite on a cyanide capsule concealed inside the mouth. But sleuths who had anticipated the woman’s move managed to remove the capsule on time. Later Police recovered two more cyanide capsules concealed in the hemline of her underskirt. This woman LTTE cadre was later identified as Kulandavelu Vinodanaiki (34) alias Tanieyi who had undergone training in the Black Tiger regiment. She had joined the LTTE movement in 1996 and had served under Manimekhala, the leader of the Women Black Tigers Unit, after `passing out of the Alfa 4 Base at Pudukudiiruppu.

Vinodanaiki , after having been posted to Vavuniya by Pottu Amman, had served under Manimekhala who had planned and carried out suicide bomb attacks under the direction of Pottu Amman. Vinodanaiki had been entrusted with the job of handling the women suicide bombers arriving in Vavuniya.

Gauri was dispatched to Vavuniya on the orders from Manimekala along with two other female suicide cadres. Three women have been assigned to the same mission. Vinoyathani functioned as their handler. However, when they arrived in Vavuniya, it was the height of war. An election was not even in the sight. They lay low, awaiting instructions to proceed with the mission. However, instructions never came.

With the death of Manimekhala in an attack launched by the Special Forces, Vinodanaiki lost her link with the Tiger hierarchy and she no longer received orders for suicide bomb attacks.

Under interrogation by the two Police teams, Vinodanaiki began spilling the beans. Following her disclosures, Police recovered three suicide bomb kits each laden with five kilos of high explosives, six kilos of C-4 explosives and 10 detonators from Kalvariyakanda in Asikulam off Vavuniya.

Several weeks back, the two women had taken up jobs in a Non Governmental Organization based in Vavuniya, a posting which the military officials allege would have enabled them to visit the IDP camps. Later, a female official of the same organization, which provides local farmers with agricultural assistance, was arrested. Police suspect that she was involved in the recruitment of the two suicide cadres to the NGO. She however has confessed her innocence.

Disclosures made by Vinodanaiki enabled the investigators to arrest another woman suicide bomber sent to Vavuniya to take VIP targets by Manimekhala. It transpired during investigations that this woman cadre from Mullaitivu was married to a youth from Vavuniya, and people in the area had never suspected that she was an LTTE suicide bomber.

The three women and their hander were laying low awaiting instructions from the leadership when their cell was busted. Military intelligence officials confide that they believe an unknown number of suicide cadres lay low, awaiting instructions to proceed with their missions. The puzzle is from where instructions would come. The LTTE lost its top- down operational structure with the decimation of its leadership. This has left the LTTE cells, which infiltrated Colombo prior to the end of conventional war in wilderness.